Girls Will not Drive in F1 Inside 5 Years With no ‘Meteorite’

System 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali has actually popped off throughout pre-Belgian Grand Prix press conferences, and the topic of one in all his current conversations simply so occurs to be the place of ladies in motorsport — particularly the truth that Domenicali doesn’t see any ladies lining up on the F1 grid any time quickly, Sky Sports reports. He’s not completely incorrect, however let’s dive into the complexity of what he’s actually saying.

“Realistically talking, except there’s something like a meteorite, I don’t see a woman coming into F1 within the subsequent 5 years,” Domenicali mentioned. “That may be very unlikely.”

He continued:

“We imagine that to have the ability to give the possibility for women to be on the identical degree with the blokes, they should be on the identical age once they begin to battle on the observe,” he added.

“We’re engaged on that to see what we are able to do to enhance the system. And you will notice quickly some motion.”

And, as additional reported within the Washington Post, Domenicali added:

Domenicali mentioned Wednesday that “we’re very proud of the collaboration with System W. However we imagine that to have the ability to give the possibility to ladies to be on the identical degree of competitors with the blokes, they should be on the identical age once they begin to battle on the observe on the degree of System 3 and System 2.”

Alright. Now that we have the context, let’s really dig in.

From a place of general sentiment, Domenicali isn’t entirely wrong. Right now, there aren’t many women in the F1 feeder series categories. Tatiana Calderon, who has just been announced to the Charouz Racing Team, is the only woman in Formula 2 — and she has yet to make a start this year because she was competing in IndyCar. There are no women in the FIA Formula 3 Championship, though there are a handful in Regional F3 series — and the entire W Series grid is made of women.

None of these women, though, are set to hit the F1 grid any time soon. In that sense, Domenicali is right: It would take a stunning circumstance to see a woman in F1 within the next five years. Even Jamie Chadwick, who is currently the most capable woman driver on the road to F1, would still likely need to put in some time in international F2 and F3 categories before she could see an F1 seat. But there are about a hundred different ways that Domenicali could have phrased that sentiment without it sounding like he wouldn’t want women in F1 without catastrophic disaster forcing his hand.

Further, Domenicali isn’t wrong when he says that, to really create an equal playing field for women in the sport, there needs to be a greater emphasis on getting young girls into karts.

But there’s one big problem with everything that Domenicali said that pretty much discounts his ability to have an informed opinion on this situation: Formula W.

He is, of course, referring to the W Series, an all-female open-wheel series that competes with Formula 3 spec chassis. Since its outset, the series has had an issue with people wanting to call it “Formula W” instead of the “W Series,” usually referring to a line of reasoning that “it’s the Formula Women series, the one with the girls.”

While this is the kind of slip-up a casual race fan might make, it’s a bad look for the CEO of Formula 1, a sport sees the W Series serve as its support series for eight events a year. If Domenicali is truly invested in encouraging more women to enter racing, it would probably help to correctly identify the all-woman series that already shares a track with F1.

Further — and this is a more personal nitpick — using the phrase “ladies” when speaking about grown ladies serves to infantilize adults. Once you name a grown girl a woman, you’re telling her that she’s not a professional, that she’s not deserving of the impartial respect you’d pay an grownup male colleague, and that she doesn’t belong in your world. As a result of no one under the age of 18 is allowed to compete in F1, no “woman” will ever race within the sequence. Solely a lady would.

So, whereas Domenicali’s common sentiment right here isn’t completely incorrect, the very language he’s utilizing to explain his place signifies that he’s in all probability the final one who ought to be speaking in regards to the authentic prospects for girls in racing.